'what design can do' seeks the boldest climate design solution

What Design Can Do partners with ikea for fourth challenge

When it comes to the climate crisis, there’s no time for cynicism. With millions of people already experiencing the effects of a warming planet firsthand, it is crucial to move forward with optimism and momentum, which is the driving force behind What Design Can Do‘s fourth challenge. In partnership with the IKEA Foundation, WDCD’s Make it Circular Challenge calls on all innovators — from designers to entrepreneurs — to submit their boldest climate solutions using circular design. Winning proposals will be made into reality with an impact-driven development program!

Are you ready to make a change? To register and submit before January 11, 2023, follow the link here.

In partnership with the IKEA Foundation, What Design Can Do launches the ‘Make it Circular Challenge’ | Overtreeders W

all images courtesy of What Design Can Do

creatives spin their heads round and round for great ideas

What Design Can Do urges creatives to build a circular society — one great idea at a time. With a submission deadline on January 11, 2023, the Make it Circular Challenge invites designers and creative entrepreneurs globally to submit design-driven innovations. The end goal? To create products, services and systems that are both user- and earth-centered, showing that a circular future is not only imaginable — but actionable. Organized together with the IKEA Foundation, the Competition looks ahead and into the power of creativity.

‘Many people become lost in the face of so much outrage, fatigue and disinterest — but not creatives. The ability to imagine is the creative community’s ideal domain: seeing what does not yet exist, taking on a challenge, forging ahead with optimism,’ says Richard van der Laken, co-founder and creative director of WDCD.

with a submission deadline on January 11, 2023, the Challenge seeks designers and creative entrepreneurs from around the world

What we eat, What we wear, What we buy, How we package, and How we build, are the five themes that participants can expand. Through in-depth briefs, the Competition encourages design-enthusiasts from around the world to rethink life, in order to make a circular future more accessible and attractive. Long-term solutions rather than quick fixes, collaborating with nature instead of exploiting it, and using existing materials as opposed to creating new ones are only some of the obvious changes that can be carried forward.

At the IKEA Foundation, we believe designers and creatives using circular principles can deliver tangible solutions that tackle climate change, waste and pollution. We believe design can help create a brighter future on a liveable planet. Just as importantly, design can also motivate the public to want to belong to that world,’ says Liz McKeon, Director – Planet at IKEA Foundation.

What we eat, What we wear, What we buy, How we package, and How we build, are the five themes that participants can expand | Overtreeders W

Winning ideas are turned into reality with €10.000 in funding

From February-March, a jury of leading experts in design, social impact and climate action are set to select a minimum of 10 winners, where each receives: funding in the amount of approx.€10.000 for the realization of the project; a global development program including online training, mentoring sessions and a bootcamp co-created by Impact Hub; and visibility & support from WDCD’s community.

a jury of leading experts in design, social impact and climate action are set to select a minimum of 10 winners